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ABOUT US
Thunder Eagle Founder Daniel Gropper Has Always Chased The Weather and Has Been Actively Involved in Community Service and Emergency Response
 As an amateur radio operator, volunteer fireman, National Weather Service (NWS) Skywarn coordinator, NWS trained cooperative observer and storm-tracker, and telecommunications specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and for the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), Dan has pursued his interests in weather and emergency communications with a passion for many years.
Gropper’s avocation became a vocation when he developed a series of emergency alert radios that are now used throughout the United States at national, state and local government Emergency Operations Centers, factories, hospitals, fire and rescue units, schools and universities, commercial broadcast operations, nuclear power plants and at major corporations.
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As Fireman in New York
In the late 1970s Gropper became a fireman in New York. While others might read or watch television, Gropper studied the emergency communications equipment in the fire department’s dispatch office.
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OFD Band |
Deck gun |
Morsan Fire |
Scott Pack |
Engine |
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Winner of the Prestigious 2006 Mark Trail Public Service and Life Saving Award from NOAA and the National Weather Service
Click HERE to download the Winter 2006-2007 Sterling Reporter.
In September 2006 the NWS awarded Gropper the prestigious Mark Trail Award for saving lives through expanding the integration of NOAA weather radio into emergency management and for providing technical support to the NWS field and technical people to improve the reliability of the entire NOAA weather radio system.
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Becoming Part of Skywarn
In the late 1980s, he joined Skywarn, a group of NWS trained volunteer weather trackers who report to the NWS in real time about the conditions they observe on the ground. This is called “Ground Truth.”
While serving as a Skywarn coordinator for the Baltimore/Washington, DC NWS Forecast Office Gropper noticed that fire departments and other emergency services were not receiving the severe weather alerts transmitted by the NWS. He searched for technology that would work, but could not find any that would place these time critical NWS severe weather alerts on existing communications, while being able to alert without disrupting.
So he designed his own specialized radio/receiver equipment that would place weather alerts on fire/emergency radio channels without disrupting. He has patented this radio and others, along with software and ancillary equipment. As part of his efforts, Gropper rewrote the Skywarn Manual. He received a national public service award from the NWS for his work with Skywarn and for training others in emergency communications practices. He received a similar award from the Baltimore/Washington NWS forecast office.
In 1993, Gropper founded Thunder Eagle, Inc. ®, which produces these state-of-the-art weather radios and communications systems.
Gropper continues to serve as a member of the NWS’s Cooperative Observer Program (COOP). He measures the weather in his own backyard, using temperature sensors, a wind gauge, a barometer and a rain gauge, and sends his observations to the NWS each day by 8 a.m.
08/24/07
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